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3 points by sacado 6124 days ago | link | parent

Yes, but then it does not work with the core functions (notably each & friends), as they are relying on isa. Renaming your function isa does not work either (that would be too easy) : atom and some call isa themselves, so you get in an infinite loop. Btw, obj is a macro (at least in Anarki, I don't know if it's present in the official Arc2), so your code has a red flag on it (although it does seem to work).

I tried this, it does work :

  (redef isa (x typ)
    (isa-rec type.x typ))

  (def isa-rec (types typ)
    (if
      (no types) nil
      (is types typ) t
      (isnt type.types 'cons) nil
      (is (car types) typ) t
      (isa-rec (cdr types) typ)))

  (isa nil 'sym) -> t
  (isa (annotate '(sym list) nil) 'sym) -> t
  (isa (annotate '(sym list) nil) 'list) -> t
  (isa (annotate '(sym list) nil) 'cons) -> nil
And now the funny part :

  (redef car (x)
    (if (isa x 'int)
      (if (> rep.x 0)
        'a
        nil)
      (old x)))

  (redef cdr (x)
    (if (isa x 'int)
      (if (> rep.x 0)
        (annotate type.x (- rep.x 1))
        nil)
      (old x)))
Both car and cdr now work on objects of type 'int (and objects of type 'cons, as before). If an object is both an int and a cons, its int being is taken into consideration. Every operation requiring 'cons cells or calling car and cdr can now be overridden to use ints instead (an int being a list whose car is the symbol 'a and whose cdr is that num - 1).

  (car 1)
  -> a
  (cdr 1)
  -> 0
  (cddr 2)
  -> 0
  (car (annotate '(int cons)) 3)
  -> a
  (len (annotate '(int cons)) 3)
  -> 3
Very funny things to do from there, but watch your fingers.


2 points by sacado 6124 days ago | link

Hmm, Playing with this stuff, I ran into that :

  (each c (annotate '(int cons) 3) (prn c))
  -> Error: "Function call on inappropriate object #3(tagged (int cons . nil) 3) (0)"
The problem is that each calls acons and alist, but they are defined in terms of (is (type x) 'cons) instead of (isa x 'cons). Once you redefine them, it works fine.

pg, do you still accept suggestions about the core functions ? Shouldn't acons and alist be defined with isa instead of is ? That would let us redefine them more easily. Btw, what do you think of all these discussions about types ?

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